Judge orders release of Nixon's secret Watergate grand jury testimony

A federal judge, responding to an appeal from historians, has ordered the release of the transcript of Richard Nixon's secret testimony to a grand jury investigating tthe Watergate break-in.

The former president was interviewed near his California home for two days in June 1975, 10 months after he resigned. It was the first time that a U.S. president had testified before a grand jury.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth agreed with historians who sued that the historical significance outweighs arguments for secrecy with the investigations long over and Nixon dead 17 years, the Associated Press reports.

The 297-page transcript will be available after the government has time to appeal, the AP says.

The historians argued that the testimony could affect debate over Nixon's knowledge of the break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex and his role in the coverup.